Germany Travel Guide: How to Plan a Trip to Germany

A first trip to Germany fits into 7 to 10 days: 3 days in Berlin, 2 in Munich and Bavaria, and 2 or 3 in a third region such as the Rhine and Cologne, Dresden and Saxony, or the Black Forest. Germany costs less than Austria or the Netherlands for meals and beer, and the Deutschlandticket at €63 ($73, £54) a month makes regional trains and city transport almost free at the point of use. May, June and September give warm days without the August crowds, and late November to late December is Christmas-market season, which is what most first-time visitors actually come for.

Germany is a federal parliamentary republic of about 83.5 million people, made up of 16 states, sharing land borders with 9 countries and using the euro. It is the largest economy in the European Union, a founding member of the EU and the country most people picture when they think of castles, Christmas markets and beer festivals.

This guide is written by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team for independent travellers, and it covers timing, trip length, transport, costs, lodging, food, festivals, etiquette and all 16 states. The site’s Germany coverage is first-hand: our writers have reported from Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Münster, Osnabrück, Nuremberg, Dresden, Saarbrücken, the Black Forest and the Volcanic Eifel, and those guides are linked throughout.

Germany quick facts

The Germany quick facts below cover the capital, language, currency, government, size, population, time zone, plugs, EU and Schengen status, driving, tap water and the emergency number.

The table stops at the practical facts. Trivia such as the number of castles and bread varieties sits in our interesting facts about Germany post.

Germany guides on Wonderful Wanderings

The Germany guides on Wonderful Wanderings go deeper than this hub on cities, food, Christmas markets, castles, architecture and sightseeing passes. The 22 guides worth starting with are listed below, most useful first.

1. Christmas markets in Germany: the country-wide overview, with dates and what each market is known for.
2. Berlin Christmas markets: over 50 markets in the capital alone.
3. Is the Berlin Welcome Card worth it?: the sums on the city’s sightseeing pass.
4. Street art at Hackescher Markt in Berlin: the courtyards behind the S-Bahn arches.
5. Things to do in Cologne: the cathedral city on the Rhine, plus restaurants in Cologne.
6. Things to do in Nuremberg: the castle, the old town and the trial sites.
7. Dresden in 2 days: an itinerary for the rebuilt Baroque centre in Saxony.
8. Things to do in Münster in 3 days: Germany’s bicycle city, with restaurants in Münster and 5 Münster museums beside it.
9. 10 things to do in Osnabrück: the other city where the Peace of Westphalia was signed.
10. A walk along the Rhine in Düsseldorf: the promenade route, with things to do in Düsseldorf in bad weather as the wet-day plan.
11. 4 cities in Baden-Württemberg: Stuttgart, Heidelberg and their neighbours.
12. Traditional crafts in the Black Forest: clockmakers, glassblowers and where to watch them work.
13. Burg Hohenzollern: the Swabian Alb castle that was never a royal residence.
14. 3 days in the Volcanic Eifel: crater lakes and geology west of the Rhine.
15. Things to do in Saarbrücken: the Saarland capital on the French border.
16. Bauhaus in Berlin, Dessau and Weimar: the movement’s three home cities.
17. Bauhaus in North Rhine-Westphalia: the industrial-belt buildings that came out of it.
18. Traditional German food: the dishes worth ordering, region by region.
19. Türmerin in Münster: the city’s tower keeper, one of the last in Europe.
20. Münster Christmas market: 5 markets inside one small centre.
21. Nuremberg Christmas markets: the Christkindlesmarkt and the ones around it.
22. Cologne Christmas markets: 7 markets within a tram ride of the cathedral.

Older posts sit in the archive. Browse all Germany posts for the full list.

I found you on Pinterest when I decided to travel outside of the United States for the first time (I’m 54). My husband and I decided to go to Germany, so I read pretty much everything you wrote on that as well as what to pack and how to make it on the long plane ride. I’m still reading your posts and planning on another trip. Thank you for all the good advice! – Reader Colleen

Best time to visit Germany

May, June and September are the months to visit Germany, when days reach 18-24°C (64-75°F), the beer gardens are open and the July and August crowds have not arrived or have gone home. Late November to late December is the alternative, because the Christmas markets are the single biggest reason people plan a German trip. Germany’s climate is temperate and varies less across the country than its size suggests. The 4 seasons are described below.

• Spring (March to May): cold and grey through March, then warm and bright by mid-May, with fewer visitors and lower room rates than summer.
• Summer (June to August): 20-28°C (68-82°F) with heat spells above 30°C (86°F), most of the year’s rain, the highest prices and the Alpine hiking season at its peak.
• Autumn (September to October): September often holds summer warmth, Oktoberfest runs from mid-September to the first Sunday in October, and October brings the clearest light of the year.
• Winter (November to February): between about -2 and 5°C (28-41°F) in the north and colder in the Alps, with Christmas markets from late November until 23 or 24 December in most towns and skiing in Bavaria from December.

Pick your month by what you want. Oktoberfest means Munich in late September, the markets mean December, and hiking or a Rhine cruise means June to September.

How many days in Germany and a sample route

Plan 7 to 10 days for a first trip to Germany, because the country is 876 km (544.3 mi) from the Baltic to the Alps and trying to see it all in a week produces a blur of stations. The 8-day sample route is listed below.

1. Days 1 to 3, Berlin: the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag dome, the East Side Gallery, Museum Island and the memorial sites, with our Berlin Welcome Card maths to decide on a pass and Hackescher Markt for an afternoon of street art.
2. Day 4, Dresden: about 2 hours from Berlin by train, for the rebuilt Frauenkirche, the Zwinger and the Old Masters; our Dresden in 2 days itinerary stretches it to a second night.
3. Days 5 and 6, Munich and Bavaria: the Marienplatz, the beer halls and a day trip to Neuschwanstein or Berchtesgaden.
4. Day 7, Nuremberg: an hour from Munich by ICE, for the castle, the walled old town and the things to do in Nuremberg our guide covers.
5. Day 8, Cologne or Frankfurt: fly home from either, after the Gothic cathedral and the things to do in Cologne if you take the western route.

With 12 to 14 days, add a region rather than more cities. The Rhine and Moselle valleys, the Black Forest, the Baltic coast around Rügen or the Harz mountains each fill 3 or 4 days on their own.

Top things to see and do in Germany

The things to see in Germany run from a 19th-century fantasy castle to a 20th-century wall. The 10 that most first trips are built around are listed below.

1. The Berlin Wall sites: the East Side Gallery, the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse and Checkpoint Charlie, all free to walk past and worth a guide to make sense of.
2. Neuschwanstein Castle: Ludwig II’s hillside castle in Bavaria, the model for the Disney castle silhouette, and a timed-ticket sight you must book ahead.
3. Cologne Cathedral: a Gothic cathedral that took from 1248 to 1880 to finish, standing directly beside the main station.
4. Museum Island in Berlin: 5 museums on one UNESCO-listed island, including the Pergamon and the bust of Nefertiti.
5. The Christmas markets: Nuremberg’s Christkindlesmarkt, Dresden’s Striezelmarkt and Cologne’s cathedral market are the 3 that draw international visitors, and our Christmas markets in Germany guide covers the rest.
6. The Romantic Road and Rothenburg ob der Tauber: a walled medieval town in Bavaria with a Christmas market that runs inside the walls.
7. The Rhine Gorge: the UNESCO-listed stretch between Bingen and Koblenz, which a boat shows better than the road does, with Rüdesheim as the classic stop.
8. The Black Forest: cuckoo clocks, hiking trails and the traditional crafts still made there.
9. Dresden’s Baroque centre: the Frauenkirche, rebuilt from rubble and reopened in 2005, and the Zwinger beside it.
10. Bauhaus: the schools and buildings in Berlin, Dessau and Weimar, and the industrial buildings in North Rhine-Westphalia that followed.

How to get to Germany

You get to Germany by plane to Frankfurt or Munich, by train from almost anywhere in Western and Central Europe, by long-distance coach, or by ferry from Scandinavia and the Baltic states. The routes in and the entry rules are described below.

Flights to Germany

Flights to Germany land at more international airports than any other country in Europe, and Frankfurt is the largest, with the widest choice of intercontinental routes. Munich, Berlin Brandenburg, Düsseldorf and Hamburg are the other major gateways, and Lufthansa is the flag carrier. Berlin Brandenburg (BER) opened on 31 October 2020 and replaced both Tegel, which closed on 8 November 2020, and Schönefeld, which became BER’s Terminal 5, so guides that tell you to fly into Tegel are out of date. Compare fares on Trip.com for flights to Germany once your dates are fixed.

Trains and coaches to Germany

Trains to Germany connect it with most of Europe, and Deutsche Bahn runs the network under the ICE, IC and RE labels. Direct international services reach Germany from Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna, Zurich, Prague and Copenhagen, and Deutsche Bahn and ÖBB run Nightjet sleepers from Vienna, Zurich and Amsterdam. From the UK you take Eurostar to Brussels or Paris and change onto a high-speed train. Advance Sparpreis fares are far cheaper than walk-up ones, and you can compare train routes and prices from within Europe before you fix dates.

Coaches are the cheapest way in from anywhere in Europe, and the network reaches Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Milan, Vienna and Prague among many others. Check FlixBus routes and prices to Germany, which absorbed most of the operators older guides still name.

Ferries to Germany

Ferries to Germany dock only in the north, at Kiel, Travemünde, Rostock, Sassnitz and Puttgarden, and they serve Scandinavia and the Baltic. Kiel and Travemünde run to Sweden, Lithuania and Latvia, Rostock and Puttgarden to Denmark, and a return ticket is often cheaper than a single, which matters if you are bringing a car. Check ferry routes and prices to Germany and book well ahead in summer.

Entry requirements for Germany

Check the current entry rules for your passport before you book, because they change. Germany is in the European Union and the Schengen Area, so EU and EEA citizens enter with a national ID card, and visa-exempt visitors such as US, Canadian, UK and Australian passport holders get up to 90 days in any 180-day period across the whole Schengen Area, with a passport valid for at least 3 months after the day you leave. Since the Entry/Exit System (EES) became fully operational at Schengen external borders in April 2026, non-EU arrivals give fingerprints and a facial scan instead of getting a passport stamp, which can add time at the airport. ETIAS, the travel authorisation for visa-exempt visitors, is not in force yet; check the EU’s official ETIAS site for the launch date. No vaccinations are required.

Getting around Germany

You get around Germany by train, because Deutsche Bahn reaches every city and the ICE network makes Berlin to Munich a 4-hour trip rather than a day’s drive. Germany’s other options fill the gaps the train leaves, and the 4 of them are listed below.

1. Long-distance trains: ICE is the fast tier, IC and EC the standard one, and booking a Sparpreis fare weeks ahead can cost a third of the flexible price; seat reservations are separate and worth it on Friday and Sunday.
2. The Deutschlandticket: a monthly pass that costs €63 ($73, £54) from January 2026 and covers every regional train, tram, U-Bahn, S-Bahn and city bus in the country, but not ICE or IC services; it is a subscription you cancel, and it pays for itself in about a week of regional travel.
3. Coaches: FlixBus undercuts the train on long routes and takes longer, which suits an overnight leg more than a daytime one.
4. Rental car: a car earns its place for the Romantic Road, the Black Forest, the Moselle and the Alpine passes, not for the cities, where trams go everywhere and parking is expensive; carry your licence and proof of insurance, and compare prices on DiscoverCars.

One rule catches visitors out. Most German city centres are Umweltzonen, low-emission zones that require a windscreen sticker, so ask the rental company whether the car already carries one.

What Germany costs

Germany costs less than Austria, the Netherlands or Denmark for eating out and transport, and about the same as Belgium. The Germany prices below are country-wide averages from Numbeo, updated 4 September 2026, converted at the European Central Bank reference rates of 4 September 2026, so treat them as a planning baseline rather than a quote.

Those rows add up to a usable day rate. Two restaurant meals, two coffees, a beer and a couple of transport tickets come to roughly €45 ($52, £39) per person before accommodation, which is the biggest and most variable cost: a Munich room during Oktoberfest and the same room in February are not the same product. Compare live rates on Booking.com for Germany rather than budgeting from an average.

Money in Germany: cards, cash and tipping

Germany still runs on cash more than its neighbours do, so carry notes even though cards work in most hotels, chains and restaurants. Germany’s bakeries, small cafés, market stalls, some taxis and a surprising number of independent restaurants are card-free or card-reluctant, and a card-only traveller will get caught out at least once. The 4 money habits worth adopting are listed below.

1. Carry €50 to €100 ($58 to $116, £43 to £86) in cash and top up at a bank ATM rather than a standalone machine in a tourist street, because the independent ones charge more.
2. Ask “Karte oder bar?” before you order in a small place, since the answer decides whether you need to find a cash machine mid-meal.
3. Decline “dynamic currency conversion” when a card machine offers to bill you in your home currency, because the machine’s rate is worse than your bank’s.
4. Tell the server the total you want to pay rather than leaving coins on the table, because German tips are handed over when you settle, and 5 to 10% is normal.

Tipping rules differ by setting. Our tipping in Germany section covers restaurants, taxis, hotels and guides.

Where to stay in Germany

Stay central in Berlin and Munich, because both cities are large and a cheap room in an outer district costs you an hour a day. Germany’s hotel prices swing hard with the calendar: Munich during Oktoberfest, Cologne during Karneval, Frankfurt during a trade fair and any market town in December all cost double or more, so book those dates months ahead. Outside the cities, a Gasthof or Pension is the local form and usually includes a large breakfast.

Booking sites do the filtering. We book hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs through Booking.com for Germany, because its filters turn hundreds of options into a short list that meets our criteria, and we use Vrbo when an apartment suits the trip better.

What to eat in Germany

German food is meat, bread, potatoes and beer done regionally rather than nationally, so the menu changes as you move: sausage styles differ by city, and the beer differs by state. The 10 things to eat and drink are listed below.

1. Bratwurst: the grilled sausage in a roll, with Nuremberg’s small ones sold in threes and Thuringia’s long ones the other benchmark.
2. Currywurst: sliced pork sausage under curry powder and tomato sauce, the Berlin street-food staple, usually with chips.
3. Schweinshaxe: roast pork knuckle with crackling, a Bavarian beer-hall plate that two people can share.
4. Spätzle: soft egg noodles from Swabia, often served as Käsespätzle with melted cheese and fried onions.
5. Sauerkraut: fermented cabbage served hot alongside meat rather than cold as a garnish.
6. Kartoffelklösse: potato dumplings, the standard side with a roast and its gravy.
7. Rinderroulade: beef rolled around onion, bacon, pickle and mustard, then braised in red wine, a Sunday dish in Saxony and Westphalia.
8. Brezel: the salted pretzel, soft and eaten fresh in Bavaria, and the reason bakeries open before dawn.
9. Lebkuchen: the spiced Nuremberg gingerbread that appears on every Christmas market from late November.
10. Beer: Pils is the standard glass in the north and Weissbier in the south, Kölsch is served in Cologne in 200 ml glasses that get replaced until you put a beermat on top, and Altbier is Düsseldorf’s answer to it.

Regional cooking is where German food gets interesting, and it rewards ordering the local dish rather than the famous one. Our traditional German food guide goes further, region by region, and for sit-down meals in the cities we cover there are restaurants in Cologne and restaurants in Münster.

Festivals and public holidays in Germany

Germany’s event calendar peaks twice, at Karneval in February or March and from late November to Christmas for the markets, with Oktoberfest in between. Germany has 9 nationwide public holidays and each state adds its own, so a day that closes the shops in Bavaria can be an ordinary working day in Berlin.

The table shows what people plan trips around. Our Christmas markets in Germany guide covers the country, and the city guides go market by market: Berlin, Nuremberg, Cologne, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Rothenburg, Rüdesheim, Trier, Braunschweig and Münster.

Germany’s 9 nationwide public holidays are 1 January, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May (Labour Day), Ascension Day, Whit Monday, 3 October (German Unity Day), 25 December and 26 December. States add their own: Epiphany on 6 January in Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Saxony-Anhalt, Corpus Christi in the Catholic states, Assumption on 15 August in Bavaria and Saarland, Reformation Day on 31 October in the northern and eastern states, All Saints’ Day on 1 November in the Catholic ones, and Repentance Day in Saxony. Shops close on all of them, including the ones that apply only where you happen to be.

Culture and etiquette in Germany

Germans are direct rather than unfriendly, and formality is a form of respect rather than distance. German etiquette rewards punctuality, a clear greeting and a willingness to follow the posted rule. The 5 things worth knowing are listed below.

1. Use “Sie” and a surname with Herr or Frau until you are invited to use “du” and a first name, because an uninvited first name reads as presumptuous rather than friendly.
2. Say “Guten Tag” on entering a small shop or a doctor’s waiting room and “Auf Wiedersehen” on leaving, since a silent entrance is what registers as rude.
3. Say “Guten Appetit” before anyone starts eating, and wait for it.
4. Arrive on time, because 5 minutes late needs a message and 15 needs an apology.
5. Wait at a red pedestrian light even on an empty street, especially with children around, because crossing early attracts comment.

Two more habits save friction. Sort your rubbish, since bins are separated everywhere and people notice, and keep your voice down on trains, where the quiet carriage is taken literally.

The 16 states of Germany

Germany has 16 federal states, 3 of which are cities in their own right, and a first trip realistically covers 2 or 3 of them. All 16 are listed below with what each is known for.

1. Berlin: the capital and a city-state, with the Brandenburg Gate, the East Side Gallery, the Reichstag, Museum Island and over 50 Christmas markets; our street art at Hackescher Markt post covers an afternoon of it.
2. Bavaria: the largest state and the most visited, with Munich, Oktoberfest, Neuschwanstein, the Berchtesgaden National Park and Nuremberg at its northern end.
3. Baden-Württemberg: the Black Forest, Stuttgart with the Mercedes-Benz and Porsche museums, Heidelberg and Baden-Baden; see our 4 cities in Baden-Württemberg, the Black Forest crafts guide and Burg Hohenzollern.
4. North Rhine-Westphalia: the most populous state, holding Cologne and its cathedral, Düsseldorf, Münster, Bonn, Aachen and the Bauhaus buildings of the industrial belt.
5. Lower Saxony: the second-largest state, with Hanover and the Herrenhausen Gardens, the Wadden Sea mudflats, the mining town of Goslar and the salt museum in Lüneburg.
6. Hesse: Frankfurt am Main, the financial centre and one of Europe’s largest airports, plus the spa capital Wiesbaden and the Rheingau wine slopes.
7. Saxony: Dresden and its rebuilt Baroque centre, Leipzig with its Bach sites and its Christmas market, the sandstone cliffs of Saxon Switzerland and the porcelain town of Meissen.
8. Rhineland-Palatinate: the wine state, with the Moselle valley, the UNESCO-listed Rhine Gorge, Riesling from Bernkastel-Kues and Piesport, the Roman city of Trier and the Volcanic Eifel.
9. Thuringia: the forested centre, with Erfurt’s medieval core, Weimar’s Goethe and Bauhaus sites, and the Canopy Walk in Hainich National Park.
10. Schleswig-Holstein: the coast between the North Sea and the Baltic, with the Hanseatic city of Lübeck, the port of Kiel and the North Frisian islands.
11. Brandenburg: the ring around Berlin, with Potsdam’s Sanssouci Palace and Dutch Quarter, the Spreewald waterways and the Sachsenhausen memorial.
12. Saxony-Anhalt: the Harz mountains, Magdeburg’s Gothic cathedral, Martin Luther’s house in Wittenberg and the Bauhaus school in Dessau.
13. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: the Baltic coast state, with more than 1,200 km (745.6 mi) of shoreline, 3 national parks, the island of Rügen, Schwerin’s lake castle and the port of Rostock.
14. Hamburg: a city-state and one of Europe’s largest ports, with the UNESCO-listed Speicherstadt warehouse district, the Elbphilharmonie and the Reeperbahn nightlife strip in St Pauli.
15. Saarland: the small state on the French border, with the Völklingen Ironworks on the UNESCO list, the Saar loop viewpoint near Mettlach and Saarbrücken as its capital.
16. Bremen: the smallest state, made up of Bremen and Bremerhaven, with a Gothic town hall and Roland statue on the UNESCO list and a Christmas market in the market square.

Two smaller cities on the site are worth a detour. Osnabrück in Lower Saxony and Münster in North Rhine-Westphalia together signed the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, and Münster still keeps a Türmerin, a tower keeper who sounds a horn each night.

Is Germany safe?

Germany is safe for travellers, including solo women: it ranked 28th of 163 countries in the 2026 Global Peace Index published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, and violent crime against visitors is rare. Germany’s real risks are petty and situational, and the 3 to watch for are listed below, most common first.

1. Pickpockets around main stations, on the U-Bahn and in Christmas-market and festival crowds: keep bags zipped and in front of you, and treat Oktoberfest and Karneval as peak season for thieves as well as visitors.
2. Bike theft: Germany loses hundreds of thousands of bicycles a year, so if you rent one, use a heavy lock and lock the frame to something fixed.
3. Cycle lanes: they run across pavements in most cities and cyclists have right of way on them, so look before you step sideways out of a shop.

Dial 112 for police, fire or ambulance.

What to pack for Germany

Pack layers and a rain jacket whatever the month, because German weather is changeable and most of the rain falls in summer rather than winter. The 4 seasonal lists follow.

• Summer (June to August): light clothing, light hiking trousers, good walking sandals, trainers, sunscreen, sunglasses, a rain jacket and a reusable water bottle.
• Autumn (September to November): layers, a waterproof jacket, comfortable shoes and a warm scarf from October.
• Winter (December to February): a warm windproof and waterproof coat, a merino base layer, merino socks, waterproof shoes, gloves and a hat, which the Christmas markets make non-negotiable because you stand still outdoors for hours.
• Spring (March to May): the winter kit for March, then layers you can shed and something warm and waterproof you can fold into a day bag for May.

Two extras finish the list. A universal adapter covers the type C and F sockets, and a swimsuit is worth packing year-round, because Germany’s spa towns and hotel saunas are used in every season.

Staying connected in Germany

You stay connected in Germany with your EU SIM, which works at home rates under the EU’s roam-like-at-home rules, or with an eSIM or a portable hotspot if you come from outside the EU. The 3 options are listed below.

1. An EU SIM: no roaming charges for calls, texts or data in Germany; UK plans vary by operator since Brexit, so check yours before you travel.
2. An eSIM bought before you fly: data from the moment you land, which matters more in Germany than elsewhere because rural mobile coverage is patchier than the country’s reputation suggests.
3. Data on the move: we carry a portable hotspot and buy day passes outside the EU, as a backup when a phone plan runs low, which suits several people sharing one connection. For a single phone, an Airalo eSIM installs on the handset you already have.

The code HARRY5578 takes €3 off a first order. Free Wi-Fi is normal in German hotels and cafés and available on ICE trains, though the onboard connection thins out between cities.

Travel insurance for Germany

Travel insurance for Germany covers what a health card does not: cancelled flights, lost luggage, a stolen phone and repatriation after an accident. EU citizens should carry their European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), UK visitors their Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC), and everyone else needs a policy with medical cover, because German hospitals will bill an uninsured visitor directly. The insurer Wonderful Wanderings uses is SafetyWing, whose SafetyWing Nomad Insurance plans can be bought before you leave or while you are already travelling.

A short history of Germany

Germany’s history runs from a patchwork of small states to unification in 1871, two world wars, 40 years of division and reunification in 1990. The 6 periods that explain what you see are listed below.

1. The Holy Roman Empire (10th to 19th centuries): a loose empire of hundreds of states rather than a country, which is why every region has its own capital, dialect and beer, and why the Thirty Years’ War of 1618 to 1648 was fought largely on German ground and ended at Münster and Osnabrück.
2. Prussia and unification (1815 to 1871): Otto von Bismarck brought the states together under Prussian leadership, and the German Empire was proclaimed in 1871.
3. The First World War and Weimar (1914 to 1933): defeat in 1918 ended the empire, and the Weimar Republic that followed produced the Bauhaus and then collapsed under hyperinflation and depression.
4. Nazi rule and the Second World War (1933 to 1945): Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, the invasion of Poland in 1939 began the war in Europe, and the regime murdered 6 million Jews and millions of others in a genocide that Germany’s memorials and museums document in detail.
5. Division (1949 to 1989): the country split into the Federal Republic in the west and the German Democratic Republic in the east, with Berlin divided and the Wall built in 1961.
6. Reunification and after (1989 onwards): the Wall opened on 9 November 1989, reunification followed on 3 October 1990, which is why that date is the national day, and chancellors since have included Helmut Kohl, Gerhard Schröder, Angela Merkel from 2005 to 2021, Olaf Scholz to 2025 and Friedrich Merz from May 2025.

Germany travel FAQ

How many days do you need in Germany?

Plan 7 to 10 days in Germany: 3 in Berlin, 2 in Munich and Bavaria, and 2 or 3 in one other region. Twelve to fourteen days lets you add the Rhine, the Black Forest or the Baltic coast without rushing.

Is Germany expensive?

Germany costs less than Austria, the Netherlands or Denmark: a meal at an inexpensive restaurant averages €15 ($17, £13), a half-litre of draught beer €4.50 ($5.20, £3.90), and the €63 ($73, £54) Deutschlandticket covers a month of regional trains and city transport.

What is the best month to visit Germany?

May, June and September are the months to visit Germany, for warm days, long daylight and thinner crowds than July and August. Pick late September for Oktoberfest and December for the Christmas markets.

Is Germany safe for tourists?

Yes, Germany is safe: it ranked 28th of 163 countries in the 2026 Global Peace Index, and the realistic risks are pickpockets at stations and festivals, bike theft and stepping into a cycle lane rather than violent crime.

Do you need cash in Germany?

Yes, carry cash in Germany, more than in most of Western Europe: bakeries, small cafés, market stalls and some restaurants are still card-free, so keep €50 to €100 ($58 to $116, £43 to £86) on you and withdraw from bank ATMs.

When are the German Christmas markets on?

Most German Christmas markets run from late November until 23 or 24 December, with a few in larger cities continuing into early January. Nuremberg, Dresden and Cologne are the three that draw international visitors.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 5 tips below are the things that catch first-time visitors to Germany out, gathered from reporting trips across the country and from re-checking the prices and rules for 2026.

1. Check that your route is regional before you subscribe to the Deutschlandticket. It covers every regional train, tram, U-Bahn, S-Bahn and city bus for €63 a month, but ICE and IC services are excluded, so a Berlin to Munich fast train still needs a separate fare. It is also a rolling subscription rather than a pass, so cancel it when the trip ends, and note the price rose in January 2026, which means older guides quote less.
2. Carry €50 to €100 in cash and ask “Karte oder bar?” before you order. Germany runs on cash more than its neighbours do, and bakeries, market stalls, some taxis and a surprising number of independent restaurants are card-free. Withdraw from a bank ATM rather than a standalone machine on a tourist street, because the independent ones charge more.
3. Ask the rental company whether the car already has an Umweltzone sticker. Most German city centres are low-emission zones that require one on the windscreen, and a car without it is a fine waiting to happen rather than a car you can drive into Berlin or Cologne.
4. Put a beermat on top of your glass when you have had enough Kölsch. Cologne serves it in 200 ml glasses that waiters keep replacing until you signal otherwise, and there is no other way to stop the flow. Order Altbier rather than Kölsch in Düsseldorf, where the rivalry between the two is taken seriously.
5. Book flights to Berlin as BER, not Tegel or Schönefeld. Berlin Brandenburg opened on 31 October 2020, Tegel closed nine days later and Schönefeld became BER’s Terminal 5, so any guide still naming those airports is six years out of date and an itinerary built on one needs redoing.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the site’s Germany coverage is first-hand, with reported guides to Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Münster, Osnabrück, Nuremberg, Dresden, Saarbrücken, the Black Forest and the Volcanic Eifel. The team covers Germany for independent travellers, including the hotels, restaurants, Christmas markets, city passes, car rental and packing gear worth booking, and updates this page when prices, dates and rules change.